


Bastards, Witches, and Dragons

by sunkelles



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: ASOIAF Canon Typical, Alternate Universe - A Song of Ice and Fire Fusion, Alternate Universe - Westeros, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:14:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23938993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunkelles/pseuds/sunkelles
Summary: Artemis Hill is the bastard daughter of a landed knight, and Zatanna Zatara is a witch.
Relationships: Artemis Crock/Zatanna Zatara
Kudos: 26





	Bastards, Witches, and Dragons

**Author's Note:**

  * For [titaniumsansa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/titaniumsansa/gifts).



> happy birthday, dude! i hope that you enjoy this weird au. i haven't written snaibsel OR actual period asoiaf in a while, so hopefully it's not just awful on all levels. 
> 
> speaking of snaibsel and asoiaf, this is my public pledge to you that i'll  
> 1\. write the next chapter of dead girl walking this summer  
> 2\. finish the sansaery fic i was also writing for your birthday that got pushed back because of graduation shit

Being the bastard, half Essosi daughter of a landed knight isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. And that’s starting at a zero baseline, because being a bastard daughter of anyone is the worst thing to be in Westeros shy of being dead. Or, perhaps, being married to Joffrey Baratheon, but Artemis isn't about to say that in public.

The Crocks weren’t always landed. That didn’t come until Robert’s Rebellion, when Lawrence Crock made a name for himself carving through Targaryen forces for the Lannisters. If Gregor Clegane weren’t around, he’d be Tywin Lannister’s favorite attack dog. 

He’s still cruel enough to warrant a place of honor. Training his bastard daughters as assassins? Only to take them out of the game because Tywin Lannister drew the line at women with any power? Jade finagled her way into the Martell court to spy for the Lannisters (and fight to her heart’s content, undetected), but Artemis is stuck here in a stuffy purple dress, waiting to be wed off to one of the men seeking to curry Tywin Lannister’s favor. 

All the Casterly Rock Lannister daughters are wed off, after all, and all of the Lannisport Lannisters as well. The Cleganes are further off than that. Even a bastard girl like her is as close as you can get to wedding into the Lannisters right now. 

There are old men, cruel men, and disgraced men. None of them appeal to her, but there’s nothing that she can do. Where would she even go? What could she even do? Her skills are as an assassin and what the Septa taught her as a lady, and neither of those are easy to market. Not as though there’s much of anything a woman could do anyway. 

It makes her want to scream, but she pulls on the damn dress and forces her way down to the feast anyway. She has suitors to see, after all. A life to throw away. People to hate. 

The hall is done up in her father’s makeshift sigil; a wooden club on a purple background to show off his newfound wealth. Her dress is a purple velvet- the most expensive thing that ever touched her skin. Her father turns from the high table and smiles at her. 

“The lady of the hour arrives,” he booms. The men around him cheer, clad in their own finery and sigils, and Artemis wishes that she were anyone but herself. Anywhere but here. 

She should have followed Jade to Dorne. 

Artemis takes her seat beside her father, and tries to hide her sneer at the stench of the man beside her. Her father introduces him as Lord something of such-and-such, and she feels her eyes glaze over. All of them are terrible, why should it matter who wins? All men are demanding, petty creatures who run women dry. It doesn’t matter which one she ends up shacked up to. 

She tunes out the chatter around her, and sits uncomfortably in her chair. Her father booms an introduction to the singer, and she ignores him as he sings about the Bear and the Maiden Fair. She tunes out Seasons of Love and Jenny of Oldstones, and especially tunes out The Rains of Castamere just to piss off Tywin Lannister. 

“Now,” her father says, “we have the most important piece of entertainment.” 

“Better than this singer?” one of the men calls out. 

“Much better than this singer,” her father responds. 

“Hey!” the singer calls out, and the men’s ribald laughter drowns him out. 

“For your entertainment,” he says, “we have an actual witch.” The hall breaks out into disbelieving chatter, which her father silences with a single shout. A woman clothed in a long, black dress makes her way to the front of the room where the singer sat with his lyre. 

The woman waves, and a trail of fire follows the arc of her hand. 

“That looks fake!” one of the men calls out. 

“Oh?” the woman asks, sending him a skeptical look, “does it?” She taps her chin curiously, and a golden goblet seems to materialize out of her chin. She holds it in her hand, examining this skeptically. 

“If my magic is all fake,” she says, “ I suppose that I shouldn’t give this to you.” The man cries out no, and then woman laughs. Then, the goblet disappears. A moment later, the man starts laughing happily. He holds the goblet up from his place near the center of the hall. 

“I believe!” he shouts. The hall erupts into cheers, and the witch takes a bow. She waits for the applause to settle down, then looks around the room. Her bright, blue eyes seem to settle on Artemis. 

“If I understand correctly, this party is to introduce the good knight’s daughter to potential suitors?” she probes. 

“Aye,” her father says, “that’s right.” The woman smiles. 

“Then I should call the special lady to the stage,” she says, “I have need of assistance for my next trick.” Artemis sends the woman a skeptical look, but the woman does not say anything. Artemis doesn’t move, but her father pulls her out of her chair and shoves her forward. 

“Go,” he orders, “the witch needs assistance.” Artemis takes a deep breath, and walks forward with a purpose. She’s not sure about this, but she can’t exactly back out. There’s nowhere to go but the front of the room. The witch smiles at her, and then pulls a sheer, red cloth from her bag. 

“May I please put this over your head, m’lady?” she asks. Artemis nods, and suddenly, a cloth has covered her head. She hears ooo-ing from the audience, then the witch hushes them. 

“Now,” she says, “I will make the lady disappear.” Artemis sees a bright light through the cloth, then darkness. Then, nothing. 

The witch lifts the cloth off her head, and suddenly Artemis comes to in a different place. An empty place. The castle doesn’t look like anything she’s ever seen before. The stone is made of a lighter material, and the air is both hot and dry. 

“Welcome to Essos,” the witch says. Artemis’s eyes widen.

“You sent me to Essos?” she asks. She can’t deny the fact that she’s always wanted to see it, ever since she was little and her mom told her about her days in Braavos… but Artemis never expected that to happen. Especially not without her consent. 

“I did,” the witch says. 

“You sent me half a world away from home, and I don’t even know your name,” Artemis says. She feels numb almost, like this is some dream that she’ll wake up from any moment. The witch smiles at her. 

“My name is Zatanna,” she tells her. Witchcraft is real, she’s in Essos, and this girl has the least Westerosi name that she’s ever heard. 

“You’re not from Westeros, are you?” 

“I was born and raised in Braavos,” Zatanna tells her. Artemis tries not to feel a flash of kinship towards her because the woman is from the same city as her mother. 

“Why were you in a landed knight’s keep in the Westerlands?” Artemis asks. 

“I was there for you, of course,” Zatanna says. Artemis bites her lip. She doesn’t think that she likes where this is going. 

“And why would that be?” she asks. 

“I see the future,” she says, “and you could turn the tide of a war that’s only barely begun.” Artemis sends her a startled look. 

“You’re saying that I’m the key to the War of Five Kings?” she asks skeptically. 

“The war of two queens, more like,” she says, “but yes. If you are not on our side, my patron will not be able to conquer Westeros. I have seen it.” 

“Who is your patron?” Artemis asks. What woman across the Narrow Sea would want to conquer Westeros? What woman would be able to keep it? There aren’t exactly many women with that level of power in the world. 

Artemis had a minimal amount of power, and had it ripped away from her. She doubts that this woman would be able to achieve that without a very fancy name and a very fancy title. 

“The missing Targaryen princess,” Zatanna says, “Daenerys Stormborn.” Artemis cackles at that. 

“You’re telling me that a little lost princess across the Narrow Sea has the resources to conquer Westeros?” she asks. She has seen the armies of House Lannister. She knows the fighting that is going on between the factions throughout the Continent. It would take a miracle for _this_ Targaryen to accomplish what Aegon the Conqueror did all those years ago. 

“Her Grace has dragons,” Zatanna says. 

“Oh,” Artemis says. Earlier today, she would have said that dragons were as likely to return as the Lannisters were to lose, but now she’s seen magic. She knows that the world isn’t as clear cut as it seems. 

“Well,” Artemis says, “that might do it.”

“It certainly will,” Zatanna says, “at least, if she has the proper help.” A queen… a queen might be able to _fix_ things. Make it so that women have options, so that bastards aren’t so mistreated. 

“But how would I help?” Artemis asks. Just wanting something doesn’t make it happen. That’s what Jade always used to tell her, before she ran off to Dorne. “Every man for himself” are the words that her father chose for their newly formed house.

“If you were to marry any of those men, it would seal the Lannister cause,” Zatanna says, “but with the Dragon Queen- you could be a fighter.” 

“What if that’s not what I wanted?” Artemis asks. This Zatanna doesn’t seem to have considered her at all. The woman only considered her Dragon Queen and victory. 

“What would you do, back at Sports Keep? Marry a terrible man, bear his children?” Zatanna says with a look of disgust on her face, “is that what you wanted?” Artemis frowns. It’s not as though she has a retort for that. Zatanna smiles at her softly, and puts a hand on her shoulder. There’s a warmth to her look that wasn’t there before. 

“I saw how unhappy you were with that life,” she says, “here, you could choose a different one.” With a queen instead of that monster of a child-king, at least Artemis could have options. 

“Alright,” she says, “I’m willing to try.” It’s not like she’s leaving something of value behind. Zatanna smiles, and her eyes crinkle at the corners. No one has smiled at her this earnestly since she was a child, back when her mother was still alive. 

“You will not regret this, Artemis Hill,” she says, “I’ll make sure of it.”

Artemis thinks that Zatanna’s already made that promise come true. 

  
  



End file.
